At around 7.40 a.m., at a cement plant, a fire broke out in a concrete-structured building housing several units including one containing 50t of automotive shredder residue (ASR), another containing 200t of sawdust, and a final one believed to be empty but actually containing 100t of fine dust. The building was adjacent to a silo filled with 20t of animal meal. Firefighters put in place a foam nozzle on the incident and a water nozzle to protect the silo. The fire was brought under control at around 9.15 a.m. Stocks sprayed with foam were removed using machines. Water used on the fire was collected in the 800m³ retention basin intended for this purpose. Patrols and monitoring were put in place overnight. Fires were found to have broken back out and were extinguished. The incident was considered to have ended the next day at around 4.40 p.m. Property damage to facilities, structures and electrical systems in the ASR and sawdust storage and distribution areas and electrical systems in the animal meal transfer area was observed. This damage amounted to more than €2.5m.
An oil leak from the hydraulic system of the grab located over the ASR pit had caused the incident. The spray lines malfunctioning allowed the fire to spread from compartment to compartment. This failure was due to:
- the lack of a site deluge system monitoring plan;
- failure to carry out a deluge system valve maintenance request submitted 9 months earlier.
In addition, lack of cleaning of the facilities had led to a build-up of combustibles in a supposedly empty compartment.
Following the event, the operator:
- tested all the fixed firefighting systems within a one-month deadline;
- drew up a fire safety plan within 2 months;
- reviewed its maintenance procedures;
- updated its crisis management procedure, taking account of feedback from this event.
The inspection authorities for classified facilities required additional actions to monitor facilities (regular checks and real-life testing of fire safety facilities, preventing build-up of combustibles except in areas intended for this purpose) and evidence of site cleaning.
Download the detailed report in .pdf format (754 Kb)
